Analysis of President elect Barack Obama's cabinet has become Chicken Soup for the post-election soul.
The NY Times recently reported that the selection of Hillary Clinton and Tim Geither indicates the Obama cabinet is prepared to govern from the "pragmatic" center, as opposed to the "ideologue" far-left.
Anyone who bothered watching the PBS documentary, "Choice 2008" already knew that.
My Mom called and told me to watch it, and I'm glad I listened.
The most revealing segment was dedicated to Obama's days at the Harvard Law Review... you know, the last time he was President.
In it, PBS via Bradford Berenson relates the best prediction of Barack Obama's Presidency that's yet been given--
"He does a very able job as President. Puts out what I think was a very good volume of the Review. Does a great job managing the difficult and complicated interpersonal dynamics on the Review. And manages somehow, in an extremely fractious group, to keep everybody almost happy."
"I think Barack took 10 times as much grief from those on the left on the Review as from those of us on the right. And the reason was, I think there was an expectation among those editors on the left that he would affirmatively use the modest powers of his position to advance the cause, whatever that was. They thought, you know, finally there's an African American president of the Harvard Law Review; it's our turn, and he should aggressively use this position, and his authority and his bully pulpit to advance the political or philosophical causes that we all believe in."
"And Barack was reluctant to do that. It's not that he was out of sympathy with their views, but his first and foremost goal, it always seemed to me, was to put out a first-rate publication. And he was not going to let politics or ideology get in the way of doing that."
Today, Newsweek gave Nouriel Roubini's analysis of Obama's appointments in light of the economic crisis and Dr. Doom has garnished his blessing on the cabinet.
Mom says they're okay too.
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2 comments:
I've followed his [Barack's] Cabinet and other appointments from afar... and from conversation it's comparable to Lincoln's approach as our 16th President.
Lincoln "handled the factions of the Republican Party well, bringing leaders of each faction into his cabinet and forcing them to cooperate." Not a bad strategy with our nation, so clearly divided on so many issues, yet united in our selection of Obama.
But, I'm really scratching my head on the H. Clinton (Secretary of State) twist... It was change that we needed, right?
Right. Lincoln invited his political rivals to be in his cabinet. Hilary has many scratching their head.
I think it shows that Obama is secure in his ability to manage big-personality types. Sure some of them are retreads, but he needs people who know what they're doing. Its the Pragmatic thing to do. And what choice does he have? Bush is mailing it in.
Obama is already acting President and the last four days have seen the biggest stock bounce since 1932.
I know--Stock market, Smock market-- but that is a big vote of confidence (for his entire team, including Hilary).
http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200811261722DOWJONESDJONLINE000858_FORTUNE5.htm
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